Michael A. Arnzen's Blog: News from Gorelets.com, page 4

The Uncanny & The Abject: Open for Enrollment!

I’ll be offering a new (virtual) course for horror writers at StokerCon 2021!

“The Uncanny and The Abject”:

Applying Psychology to Disturb the Reader

Saturday, May 22, 5 P.M. EST — StokerCon 2021 Online

DESCRIPTION:

This two hour online workshop will unravel the psychological theories of the Uncanny and the Abject. Together, we will explore how they pertain to crafting tales of terror and shock through discussion of published horror fiction and live short writing activities that explore the different techniques required when triggering revulsion or conjuring dread. Note: a short story for discussion will be emailed to participants and is required reading prior to the class.

REGISTRATION DETAILS:

The class will run live (synchronously) online on Saturday as part of StokerCon’s “Horror University” programming, but note that all Horror University courses are ticketed separately via Teachable.com

The price for this course is $65 usd. Be sure to visit Horror U for a full explanation and extra details on any discounts or bundles that might be available. Or go directly to the Horror U class on Teachable.com

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:

Michael Arnzen teaches horror and fiction writing fulltime at Seton Hill University — home of the MFA in Writing Popular Fiction — and has run workshops at World Horror Convention, Odyssey, Alpha, and elsewhere for genre writers, including every stateside StokerCon. The author of INSTIGATION and GRAVE MARKINGS, Arnzen holds four Bram Stoker Awards and an International Horror Guild Award for his twisted fiction and poetry.

Recommended related anthologies from UK publisher, Comma Press!

JOIN STOKERCON 2021 to discover a whole raft of programming for horror fans, authors and industry professionals!

NaPoWriMo 2021

I always enjoy National Poetry Month (and its sibling, National Poetry Writing Month — NaPoWriMo) in April each year. I try to acquire new poetry books, read more classics, host poetry workshops and teach contemporary poets in my classes at SHU, and write poetry more often than I usually do. In the past, I’ve treated NaPoWriMo as a kind of obsessive challenge; this year, I’m just taking it easy and sharing my poems old and new alike on various platforms when the mood strikes me.

In this blog post, I’ll keep track of poetic things I’ve shared or published in April 2021, updating it as the month progresses, and possibly tossing a few new pieces into the mix.

I’ve returned to The Five-Two: Crime Poetry Weekly (who annually celebrates National Poetry Month with daily features and donates profits to poets.org throughout the month). This time around The 52 is calling April the “Cruelest Poetry Month” (given the pandemic, I agree!) and they featured my new poem, “The Thief Came In” (and also posted my reading of it in audio). You can return every day to Crime Poetry Weekly and read something fresh and insightful.

Speaking of audio, I discovered Twitter Voice on my phone app, and decided to play with it by posting random recitations of my horror poetry on twitter all month. You can track these and listen to all of them as they go live here.

And of course, there’s always The Fridge of the Damned magnetic word kit — a casual form of creative instigation that never dies. Here’s a new fridge poem I posted to instagram this month, and I’m sure there will be more.

Visit The Fridge of the Damned gallery!

I’m also rebooting The Goreletter in mid-April, so please sign up (even if you used to subscribe, you’ll need to do it again on the new server or in the form below).

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The Goreletter Returns This April 2021!

If you didn’t already catch word of the good news — I have finally found what I hope will be a more secure and stronger email server to reboot my newsletter, The Goreletter! The first issue will be sent in mid-April, 2021. Even if you’re a past subscriber, you’ll need to resubscribe. Sorry, but it’ll be easy. Just….

Sign up at Revue or fill out the form right here:

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Never heard of The Goreletter? I’ve also resurrected the back issue archive, which you can peruse at your leisure in the gorelets Repository.

Lots of people tell me they like it, because I don’t just send alerts about things you can buy, but always include fun extras and original writing whenever I’m able. It even won the Bram Stoker Award for “Alternative Forms” once upon a time!

Give it a try. It only will come out every once in awhile. And you can always unsubscribe with ease if you don’t find it worthwhile.

Please Subscribe to The Goreletter!

Voices Echoing in Your Head

At the end of March, I returned to the Visited by Voices vidcast series hosted by Lorne Dixon, to participate in the first VbV Writer’s Roundtable and it was a pretty amazing conversation! I chatted and laughed for over an hour with a diverse group of horror writers, all of whom I hold in high esteem: Ramsey Campbell, Brian Hodge, Mary SanGiovanni, Mark Allan Gunnells, doungjai gam & Lorne Dixon himself. It was kind of like being on a panel discussion at an international horror convention… or more like a chummy roundtable. Check it out.

We talked about so many issues, but the themes of “dark joy” (or is it wicked glee?) seemed to dominate, as we explored our influences and favorite works in the genre, what habitually drives us, what it takes to survive in today’s unsane publishing world, and cats (you can see my pet, Hex, at the top of the hour!). I left it inspired, and I bet if you’re a horror fan or author, you will too.

View it on youtube, where you can subscribe to Lorne’s amazingly fresh and devoted channel on all things horror.

Instigation: Prompts About Masks

If you write horror or otherwise create “on the dark side,” look into acquiring my prompt collection, INSTIGATION: Creative Prompts on the Dark Side.

In my day job, I teach creative writing at Seton Hill University, and one of my many tasks is advising the campus literary magazine, Eye Contact. They are running a special theme issue on “Masks” for Spring 2021, in response to the Covid pandemic, and I made a list of prompts for one of their workshops, as well as for my current creative writing class.

Since masks are an icon in the horror genre, I thought I’d also share that instigation with the public here, too (even though not all the prompts are “scary”). If you’re a writer looking for something to trigger a story idea, poetry premise, or journal entry, see below! Teachers, too, should feel free to steal these. [If you’d prefer to download a copy for your own personal use, I’ve posted a downloadable .pdf version (also available on Academia.edu) of what follows.]

PROMPTS ABOUT MASKS:

Although the following list is intended to inspire creative writing during the Covid-19 pandemic, not all of the prompts necessarily relate to face masking during the health crisis, and instead invite you to contemplate the variety of ways in which masks can operate in any given culture or in the arts.

Write a monologue (first person talk) from the point of view of your mask.Draft a poem entitled “Hide and Speak”Your story begins with a masked woman pushing a cart through the aisles of a supermarket during a pandemic. A very young child sits in the front of the shopping basket.  The child is not wearing a mask.  Describe their encounter with a stranger who is upset by this contradiction.Reflect on all the things that you hide behind your mask in a short creative non-fiction piece or realistic memoir.How differently did you wear your pandemic mask on Halloween day? Journal about this as a source for a possible poem or flash fiction piece.Create a four panel graphic narrative featuring a mask or some kind of facial covering, called “What’s Missing.”Research how different cultures integrate masks in their daily life. And then write about a conflict of your own design that masks might create or resolve.Write about the way any famous masked hero or villain or other well-known movie character feels when their mask is off.Describe your favorite mask — or perhaps the different masks you wear for different circumstances — and why.Describe the personality of a modern “Man of Many Masks.”Write a scene set in a very different (if not downright bizarre) kind of “masquerade.”Riff on Poe’s famous short story title to come up with your own original title:  “The Masque of the [adjective] [noun].” Write the story or poem to earn it.Robert Bloch once wrote, “Horror is the removal of masks.”  What does this mean to you?Write a poem that includes each of the following words related to masking:disguise, front, screen, obscure, veilWrite a poetic list of “The Masks We Throw Away”Imagine in great detail what it would be like to perform impossible or absurd actions while wearing a face mask: eating, kissing, etc.In what ways did you already mask something about yourself, prior to the pandemic? How will you truly unmask yourself after?Research the arguments that conspiracy theorists are making against mask mandates (maybe start with a google search for “mask conspiracies”), and use what you find as a springboard into a science-fiction story or a humorous piece.Write a prose poem in appreciation of all the problems that your face mask has prevented.

Stoker-Inspired Special Spring ’21 Update

Spring is springing and I thought I’d share a general update, sparked by my registration for StokerCon this May…

StokerCon — the annual convention of horror genre professionals run by the Horror Writers Association — announced it was going virtual this year (due to the Covid pandemic; a wise move), so I registered and WILL be attending and probably be a part of the program in some fashion. I’m proud to report that there are several alumni from the MFA in Writing Popular Fiction program (where I teach horror) in the running for the Bram Stoker Award to be given at this event: EV Knight, Sara Tantlinger, RJ Joseph and Patricia Lillie. It’s running May 20th-23rd, 2021 and promises to be a highlight of the year. Interested? Register now!

To mark the occasion, I decided to give away my Stoker-inspired “Tale of Van Helsing” — Murrmann — for free for the remainder of the week. If you’re lucky enough to see this between 3/3 and 3/5/21, head to amazon.com and download the kindle edition of Murrmann for zero bucks. (Reviews are always much appreciated.)

While I was on amazon, by the way, I noticed that the ebook edition of my Stoker-winning fiction and poetry collection from Dark Regions Press, Proverbs for Monsters, was also put on a “countdown deal” this week. That means the sooner you order, the cheaper it is. Right now it is at 99 cents. I think the countdown expires on 3/6/21. If you don’t have this book, and you haven’t read much of my work, this “best of Arnzen” title is probably the starter kit I’d recommend. Act quick – buy now!

To learn more about the Bram Stoker Awards, check out the nifty website dedicated to the trophy: http://www.thebramstokerawards.com/

There you can read my tribute, “Why the Bram Stoker Award Matters” or drop by my own awards page.

The fancy limited edition of Proverbs for Monsters with the Bram Stoker Award trophy it won.

In non-Stoker related news, I’ve been busy so far in 2021 with teaching Writing Popular Fiction and other courses at Seton Hill University — as always — but steadily working on a few projects…

Like many writers, I’ve been turning to videoconferencing to stay in touch. Recently I gave a lecture to the college on “Masks & Messages” — a topical look at the way facemasks not only prevent the spread of disease, but also both hide and send messages revealing our troubled discourse during the Covid-19 global pandemic. [I’d really like to give this talk elsewhere, as the issues it addresses are so timely and important — i.e. I’m open to paying invitations for guest speaker gigs! Email me!]

I’ve also updated my YouTube channel with links to interviews and readings I’ve given over the past year. Highlights include a talk with Lorne Dixon on my career (especially with Dell/Abyss Books) at VisitedByVoices; a reading and interview at the 2020 International Vampire Film & Art Festival, and an insightful talk (alongside my editor, Eric Guignard) with David Agranoff at Postcards from a Dying World about the Exploring Dark Short Fiction series of books that I regularly contribute to as Academic Advisor. (I’m currently getting ready to turn in my essay on author Ramsey Campbell for the next book in the primer series!).

Other updates to my YouTube channel (which, honestly, is just an archive of other people’s things) include a lively talk on The Exorcist I had with the Ink to Film podcast and some panel discussions from the virtual Confluence science fiction convention last year (my favorite being the conversation on The New Weird alongside Rachel Swirsky (whose collection, How the World Became Quiet is amazing) P. Djeli Clark (whose book, Ring Shout, I loved) and Martha Wells (the awesome creator of Murderbot!)). And in the near future, you’ll also find an audio recitation of a new “crime” poem for National Poetry Month coming from The 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly and perhaps even a new audio story in the year ahead from The Wicked Library.

We’re one year into this pandemic, and I know it’s been hard on everyone… but as I’ve said elsewhere, you’ve made it this far for a reason. Keep masking up. And stay strong, folks. Keep in touch with me through twitter and instagram, where I do most of my online socializing anymore. Trust that I’ve washed my hands.

Cheers, — Mike Arnzen

Voices in Your Head

I’ll be fielding questions from horror writer Lorne Dixon LIVE on Visitedbyvoices on youtube FRIDAY, 2/19, at 8PM eastern. All horror-interested folks are invited to have a fun time. Lorne has been interviewing a number of interesting guests across the spectrum of horror media… subscribe to his VBV channel and keep up with him at: https://youtube.com/visitedbyvoices1

See the Events page on gorelets.com for other upcoming opportunities.

The Tale of the Horribly Bloated Souffle

Welcome to my 2021 website reboot!

I apologize if you’ve come to gorelets.com and not found what you were hoping to find. The site is about twenty years old, and was getting very crusty with old content and dozens of broken links… and in mid-2020 collapsed like a horribly bloated and badly malformed soufflé.

It’s such a mess that I decided to restart from scratch. Lots to rebuild. Lots of new things to share with you. But for now you just have this little sticky note on the door of the kitchen, saying come back later when it’s ready.

The Tale of the Horribly Bloated Souffle

Welcome to my 2021 website reboot!

I apologize if you’ve come to gorelets.com and not found what you were hoping to find. The site is about twenty years old, and was getting very crusty with old content and dozens of broken links… and in mid-2020 collapsed like a horribly bloated and badly malformed soufflé.

It’s such a mess that I decided to restart from scratch. Lots to rebuild. Lots of new things to share with you. But for now you just have this little sticky note on the door of the kitchen, saying come back later when it’s ready.

Instigating with Brain Squalls Podcast

Over the holidays, I appeared on the Brain Squalls podcast as their first guest. Every episode of the podcast — run by horror author EV Knight and her partner Matt Daigh — is a creativity experiment, in which the two of them come up with prompts for story or art ideas and then create story lines and structures “live” as they pursue the possibilities. It’s a lot of fun. And when I was in the mix, bringing a little Instigation to the table, it was a lot of weird. I had a great time daydreaming on the dark side with Brain Squalls. Give it a listen… and if you find it inspiring, support them on Patreon